Policy dialogue – a powerful tool for governance of Niger's food and nutrition security and sustainable agricultural development sector

POLICY DIALOGUE –

A POWERFUL TOOL FOR GOVERNANCE OF NIGER’S FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY AND SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT SECTOR

From 2018 to 2021, AFC strengthened the governance of the “food and nutrition security and sustainable agricultural development” sector in Niger by establishing a cross-ministerial policy dialogue.

In Niger, the High Commission’s dialogue for the 3N Initiative - Nigeriens Nourish Nigeriens (HC3N) is responsible for coordinating the newly defined “food and nutrition security and sustainable agricultural development” (SANAD) sector, and is deployed to the ministries and institutions of the agriculture, livestock, environment, hydraulics, trade and food crisis prevention and management sub-sectors. During the last three years, AFC supported the HC3N in the setting up of the new sector and its cross-ministerial organisation.

One of the most important reforms driven by the project was the improvement of sectoral governance. This has been achieved through the introduction and operationalisation of a range of strategic and operational, technical and financial management and steering instruments. Indeed, governance has been addressed in several aspects, in particular strategic, programmatic, financial, institutional, technical, and operational governance.

The multi-actor characteristics of the sector with roles and responsibilities distributed over various institutional actors led AFC to place the upgrading of inclusive political and strategic decision-making at the heart of governance. The instrument policy dialogue was developed, structured and placed at the centre of the sectoral governance.

The first policy dialogue was initiated as a culture of governance to lead to concerted and consensual decisions between state and non-state actors and technical and financial partners.

The Joint Annual Review (JAR) of the sector is the framework for establishing the dialogue. AFC has redesigned the concept of the joint review in a pyramid approach to programming and reporting. It starts from each of the JAR sub-sectors by conducting a series of assessments, consultations and dialogues on budgetary achievements and programming. This is done first at the level of each of the sub-sectors of water and sanitation, trade and the private sector, environment and the fight against desertification, prevention and management of food crises, agriculture and livestock; then at the overall level of the food and nutrition security sector. Introduced in 2019, the new Joint Annual Review format, which is based on high-level policy dialogue, has been successfully operationalised in 2020 and 2021.

The governance reform has been a tangible and much appreciated success.

During 2019, 2020 and 2021, the ministers of agriculture and livestock, water and sanitation, trade and private sector, environment and desertification control, the Prime Minister in charge of food crisis prevention and management, and the High Commissioner for 3N Initiative personally led the JARs and facilitated policy dialogues on the status and prospects of the respective sub-sectors and the overall SANAD sector.

The commitments made during the dialogues by the state, the technical and financial partners (TFPs) and the non-state actors are recorded in a memorandum of understanding and are subject to an operationalisation and follow-up plan. The status of implementation of the recommendations is presented and discussed at each review.

Visibility and communication that characterise the review and policy dialogue put all stakeholders on the same level of information and facilitate buy-in to all SANAD sector reforms. Today, the sector is the only one in Niger that effectively implements policy dialogue to improve its governance.

The practical approach:

Institutional dimension of the tripartite dialogue with: Anchor on the calendar of annual budget cycle allowing:

The State through the ministries and administrations responsible for the sector

Technical and financial partners coordinated by the lead partners

Non-state actors (NGOs, professional associations and private-sector actors)

To be supported by previous year’s Annual Performance Reports

To tackle the effectiveness of the current year and also the budget planning for the following year

SUCCESS Mobilisation and organisation of these various stakeholder groups through:

The establishment and training of a JAR organising committee in each ministry and administration Strengthening and empowering the role of the lead TFP in each sub-sector and the SANAD sector Structuring and training of non-state actors in each sub-sector and the overall sector

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